I don't know man? Are you guys sure about this whole theory?
And, these women. They are so averse to the "date down" idea in your view, that they are willing to contract HIV to avoid dating firemen or truck drivers?
I'm probably too old to understand anymore. But I'll just say that in my day, more women were in college than men. Even so, that idea of risky sex because a guy has a degree would have been patent nonsense. Very few women in my day would have been willing to risk their lives to have sex with you. A guy's degree was just not that attractive.
I find it difficult to believe that women have changed very much in that regard. But, hey, I guess if you guys say so.
Since I entered the dating market I have observed that women prefer men being taller, at least comparable smartness and earning a bit more than them. The couples around for which this isn't true are probably < 10% of all.
Tinder and the like (yep, the year stood out for me too) creating a magnifier effect on a previously geographically constrained imbalance, funneling a significant percentage of short term hook ups through murky, disease-ridden "alpha male" bottlenecks.
More sexual activity, fewer people (particularly, fewer straight men) doing it.
This theory should be easily falsifiable if the data shows that there isn't a particular decrease in overall male numbers as a percentage compared to female.